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Wednesday, August 15, 2018

A Writer's Words - What Goes Bump In the Night?

Hocus Pocus and All That

What Goes Bump In the Night?

By Maureen L. Bonatch

Why is it that everything is more terrifying in the dark? Do all the boogeymen in the world wait for dusk to fall to prepare for an evening of shenanigans? As if they realize that moving the door ever so slightly or messing with that creaky step will be completely wasted if the sun is still up? So, do the boogeyman all wait for the sunset to begin a night of terror and torment, as if an office employee waiting for five o’clock to rush the door?

Creatures of the Night vs. Imagination
As darkness settles and cloaks the world it opens opportunities for ghosts, goblins and all likes of goobers to strike terror into the heart of ordinary day-walking folk. It’s that or it’s the blanket you forgot you hung over the chair that now resembles something unearthly in the shadows. You can’t suppress the terror that fills you when the linen room closet slowly opens—even though you routinely slam it shut in annoyance when it resists the plethora of linens jammed in there. However, that’s in the daytime. At night, it must be a spirit bursting from its confines.

Rules of the Night
I can’t attest for too much of the shenanigans of the midnight hours, because as an early bird, spending too much time willingly awake during those hours is unheard of for me. Although I do abide by certain guidelines when the night falls.
• A blanket serves as a superior shield against most evils. If you choose to stick your leg out to regulate your temperature you’re just asking for it by dangling this fleshy bait.
• Basements seem to serve as a storage area or family room during the day but once night falls they offer shelter to all likes of entities—get what you need early and get out!
• If you happen to wake up exactly at midnight go back to sleep fast because that’s like “happy hour” —quick, go back to sleep! Or if nothing else, close your eyes.
• Otherworldly entities seem to flee when faced with more than one person—don’t go it alone! As soon as you wake your partner to share your distress you know darn well that demonic disturbance will slink back to the shadows.
• Spiders and centipedes and other creepy-deeks seem to know that this is their time to shine. They gleefully strike the terror into the heart of the hapless victim unfortunate enough to choose this time for a toilet break—watch your step!

Nightwalkers
My heroine in my upcoming release Evil Speaks Softly writes during the midnight hours, so of course this opens the door for a darker story than if the setting had been a cheery sunlit coffee house. She struggles with sorting the difference between the perils of the imagination and the spirits that walk the night.

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